The Netflix Book Club

Not only do I subscribe to a subreddit with that title in which users literally share graphs and beautiful images of data that they have collected in really neat ways, but I’ve also been learning more about the concept of data gathering, mining, warehousing, and so much more in my Database Management & Design course that I’m taking at school this semester. It’s been really fascinating for me to go into Microsoft Access or SQL Server Management Studio, two pieces of software I had previously been completely unfamiliar with, and actually be able to create a database in them and ask them for particular sets of information or to generate reports. SQL is fun! Type in a command, and behold! An entire table of your requested information is laid out before your very eyes! Crazy!

Something else I’ve been super into is discussing TV shows with my coworkers! It turns out that a few of us are crazy into some of the same shows and love discussing them once we’ve all caught up. I like to say it’s something of a “modern day book club” (or Netflix book club, if you will) that we’ve accidentally started amongst one another. Because, really, who reads anymore? (Actually, all of us do, but that’s a different story for another time.) It’s something we all enjoy and something that we have in common. So why not bond over what we thought of last night’s Criminal Minds or This Is Us?

With these two topics swirling around in my mind along with the idea of putting together a Netflix recommendation post, I decided to pursue an interesting little project this weekend. I’ve captured the data of everything that I watched on Netflix in 2017 and, along with recommendations from my Facebook friends a few weeks ago, came up with a rather interesting look at just what we consume via the streaming giant.

If you’re looking for something new to watch, take a look below!

The Data

Pie chart of the movies and shows that I watched on Netflix in 2017.

Before I get into my thoughts on the data, let me explain how I put this together. Thankfully, Netflix actually did a bulk of the data collection process for me by tracking everything I watched anyway. You can actually check out your own viewing history if you go to this page after logging into your account. As far as measuring by genre, I plugged all of my data with viewing dates from January 1st until December 31st of 2017 into a spreadsheet and assigned a different genre per title. I didn’t want things to get too crazy, so I didn’t break genres apart too much by giving Gilmore Girls a category like “romantic comedy” or “dramedy” or something that, in reality, probably fits that show much better.

There were a few that I honestly didn’t think would fit in any other generic category. Moana and Sing were the only two contributions to the “Family” genre that I created because, honestly, animated films in my mind shouldn’t have been placed into broad categories like drama or comedy. Same goes for science fiction. I watch so much science fiction that it really felt like it deserved its own space. And as for the sliver of orange on the pie that was so slim it didn’t even get a label on the chart, that genre was actually “Talk Shows,” with Chelsea being the one and only title in it.

Penelope and Spencer are just two of the reasons why I love me some Criminal Minds!

Truthfully, I’m not surprised that drama wound up with the biggest chunk of the pie here. It’s probably the broadest genre that I stick to. I think the biggest surprise for me though was that comedy is the second-largest. Knowing myself the way that I do, I thought science fiction would’ve claimed the silver here. During the course of 2017 though, I discovered and jumped on the very late Criminal Minds bandwagon though, and with 12 seasons to its name on Netflix, it took up a large chunk of my year in streaming. In fact, making my way from the pilot episode all the way through to the final episode of season 12 took me from March 11th through August 3rd. Talk about a time killer!

Here are some other series that I completely consumed from beginning until the very end (so far!) within 2017:

Breaking it Down Further

TV shows weren’t the only things on Netflix that I watched. I probably took on more documentaries than ever in 2017. In the past, I haven’t typically sought out any particular documentary to watch, but Netflix seems to make them easier and much more compelling to find and take an interest in. They have documentaries about almost any subject matter! Here’s are the documentaries that I watched in 2017:

Recommendations

Wisdom of the Crowd was one spectacular friendly recommendation!

Several weeks ago, when I was in the initial planning stages of putting together a Netflix recommendation post, I took to Facebook and asked my friends list what their favorite series that they had watched in the last year was. Here were some of the responses:

Social

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